Ask any Lancer what their most recent memory of Craig Fairweather is, and they will most likely recall an exchange of smiles and laughter and a conversation with a genuinely earnest friend.

His friends recall his ability to make anyone he spoke to feel important and cared for. Teachers at LHS made note of how the atmosphere of a classroom changed when Craig entered.

A year after Lancer Nation lost one of its own, students regroup to remember a friend who took them on adventures and created memories that will remain with them long after the years at LHS draw to a close.

Samantha Board

“Craig was the only other person who could eat Chinese food more than once a week and never get sick of it.  We always talked about how we wanted to be ‘regulars’ somewhere, so we would always go together to the same restaurant.

One day we saw someone with a platter that had fire in the middle so, obviously, we had to try it. When the fire would start to burn out, we would jam the crab rangoons in there because neither of us liked them.

We eventually went to the restaurant so much that everyone knew us; so immediately when we would walk in they would start making our food and bring us our usual drinks without us even saying anything. It kind of became a tradition.”

Karamel Quitayen

“Not last summer but the summer before, we decided to go to the gym (realizing that all we ever did together was eat and get fat…). This was before either of us had our licenses, so we had my sister drive us to the Workout Club.

After less than a half hour of ‘working out’ (which was mostly us running around and exploring the ‘authorized personnel only’ parts of the building), we got bored. So Craig decided he wanted to surprise my sister when she picked us up.

We ended up walking all the way to Walgreens and bought some temporary hair dye. The expression on Kirsten’s face when she saw our green hair was hysterical and totally worth almost getting hit by a car as we walked back down the busy highway.”

“We were stuck at school for band and got bored and hungry (as usual). We snuck into the teachers’ lounge, took a bottle of whipped cream, and then he forced me to take a selfie with him in the boys bathroom because he didn’t want to go in the girls room.  Typical.”

Andrea Stevens

“We decided to go to one of the swim meets just to see what it was like. I remember it was so crowded and there was nowhere to stand, so we started trying to find a place to go and watch.

Craig was leading the way when he turned back to us and said ‘why isn’t anyone standing over here?’ and then he started walking to what he thought was an open area to stand in.  But it was actually a hot tub that has a cover just over the surface of the water.

Then he stepped on the cover and completely fell in. I could’ve sworn that the whole thing happened in slow motion. The second he fell in, everyone that was around us all turned and said “oooohh” and he immediately stood up, took his phone and wallet out of his soaked pocket, and said ‘Andrea hold these right now!’ in the most embarrassed voice ever. People then started asking if he was alright which embarrassed him even more than he already was.

We ended up taking one of the swimmer’s towels and going to the bathrooms to dry him off. I took his shoes into one bathroom to dry them with the hand dryer while he went into the other bathroom to dry him and his clothes off.  

Then later that night he told me how embarrassed he was, and how he was never gonna forget that. I said to him ‘Don’t worry about it, it’ll be a funny story to tell your kids’ and he replied, ‘No, it’ll be a funny story to tell OUR kids’.

“One time we went Black Friday shopping at 2 am and we decided to go get Chinese food at the food court. Him being the fast eater he was, he finished his food way before I finished mine.

He asked me how mine was, and before I could finish my answer, he flipped my tray over and Chinese food went everywhere. He got up and said ‘sorry, you took too long. cmon let’s go’ and walked away laughing his head off while I was trying to clean it all up.

Mrs. Wooding

“In class Craig always worked with Samantha Board. They were inseparable.

They did this presentation once and they laughed so much preparing this presentation that I didn’t even think that they would ever get it done. They even stayed after school and there were always giggles and laughs.

In the presentation they included a video clip, and they had the whole class  laughing. I think that’s what everyone remembers most about Craig. He always made everyone smile and the minute he would walk in, someone would be either hugging him or catching up.”

“His enduring memory will be lots of smiles.”

Lauren Voorhies

“I remember one time late at night, I was texting with Craig and was telling him how I was having a bad day. About 15 minutes later, he texted me and told me to come into my porch. He was standing there waiting for me, and when I walked outside he looked at me and smiled and he gave me the biggest hug.

We ended up talking for like a straight hour. I will never forget that night. He was such an amazing friend and he always knew how to make someone’s day 100% better. He was such a sweetheart.”

“One time Craig came over my house and he went rummaging through my garage only to pull out a wagon I had in there.

He told me on the way over he found this really cool tree that had these really big crab apples on it. So he insisted we walk over, fill the wagon with crab apples, and then walk around the neighborhood and put them in someone’s mailbox.

When he told me his idea, all I could do was laugh, but we ended up doing it. Before we could make it to a mailbox, we had to go down a hill with the wagon. He suggested I get into the wagon with all these crab apples.

So as I went down the hill, he stood at the top of the hill and laughed at me. At the bottom of the hill, I tried to get out but ended up flipping over and spilling all the crab apples. If I’m not mistaken, we both peed our pants laughing.

That was the hardest I’ve ever laughed in my life. I’m glad it was with him.”

Andrea Wooldridge

“My favorite memories with Craig would have to be in in eighth grade in gym class, we were doing the warm up run and Craig and I were being try-hards (of course).

At the end we decided to race, and right before I was about to win I hear ‘don’t trip!’ as he gave me a little push. I ran right into the wall and broke my arm. That’s when we became really close friends.

He was still apologizing for it years later even though I was never mad by it because it brought us so close.”

“My other favorite memory was when Craig, Samantha Board, and I decided to try to run away from a band practice last football season. We hopped in the back of Alex Young’s car. He drove off, and all I can remember is Craig grabbing my hands laughing hysterically and saying that we were being kidnapped.

I couldn’t breathe. I was laughing so hard because his laughter was simply contagious.”

Mr. Soucy

“Craig came down to band daily, and he wasn’t the first one ready to play because he was so social. He would say ‘hi’ to his friends, and he always had a smile. He was very kind and good-natured, and he just felt really comfortable in that environment.”

Mia Vitukevich

“One time I was driving in the car with Craig to pick up my brother at work and the song ‘Chandelier’ came on the radio. We were both so shy to sing at first but as soon as the chorus started, we both started screaming and singing at the top of our lungs at the same time.

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much in my life, and his contagious laugh did not stop my from laughing.”

Corey LaMalva

“We would go to Craig’s locker every day after lunch to shake the well-known banana concoction. This concoction consisted of a banana peel, water, and some milk from the cafeteria. It was absolutely disgusting, but despite  that, we closed it in a water bottle and shook it every day.

Finally, at the end of sophomore year, we decided  to smell the banana before we officially threw it away. It was terrible, but we laughed so hard when we looked at the final result of it from the beginning to the end of the year.

On Halloween junior year, Craig, Gianna Galluzzo, and I all went in my basement and rummaged through the costume trunk. He dressed up in some weird witch dress, I dressed up as a black cat, and Gianna dressed as a bumble bee.

That  night we handed out candy to kids and typical Craig, wanting to make things funny, decided to hide behind a bush and scare little kids.

Once Halloween was over, we decided to take a drive to go to a public lake by my house. It was closed so we  kept driving and all of a sudden, sirens lit up and we knew we were in trouble because he only had his license for a month and was driving more than one person.

He got out of the car and the officer says ‘what are you supposed to be, Harry Potter?’ Once he came back in, he was really shaken up because he was luckily let off with just a warning to get his taillight fixed.

To lighten up the mood, I imitated the officer, and we all laughed so hard.”

All photos are courtesy of friends of Craig Fairweather.

Please feel free to share your memories of Craig in the comments section below.